


30 seconds

by Toshua



Category: Salvation (TV)
Genre: Freeform, Gen, Inner Dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 05:33:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15550743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toshua/pseuds/Toshua
Summary: Moments after 'Let the Chips Fall (Season 2, Ep 6).  Darius' reaction and thoughts.





	30 seconds

**Author's Note:**

> I've been watching this with great interest and these pages spun out almost immediately. The next episode should be really interesting.

30 seconds can change a life. 30 seconds can change your destiny. 30 seconds and a life dies in your arms. 30 seconds….

“Mr. President, we have to go.” A Secret Service agent has a hand on his arm, tugging gently.

“I’m not leaving her.”

“We have to go.”

30 seconds. Darius lay the cooling body of Pauline MacKenzie on the carpet. Secret Service surrounded him, urging him down a hall, away from open windows, especially the one with the silenced bullet hole in the glass. The blood on his face burned even as it cooled. MacKenzie’s blood. The President of the United States blood. Blood that sealed his fate.

He was hustled into a small conference room, surrounded by agents. Grace and Harris were behind him, a phalanx of agents blocking the door. Curtains over large windows were pulled close, plunging the room into dim light before chandeliers flickered on.

“Mr. President…” The same agent who’d pulled him to his feet was in his face. 

Darius didn’t have a name to the face and he didn’t like that. His mind was reeling, even as he accepted a white folded handkerchief to wipe the blood off his face and fingers. He started to wipe his fingers, stopped the automatic action. He took a deep breath, feeling the air in his lungs, settling his mind in the time it took for a long exhale. He looked up, meeting Grace and Harris’ eyes. He took another long breath. 

“What now?”

Harris stepped forward. “Mr. President, we have to swear you in. As Vice President you become President upon the death…”

“Don’t call me that, Harris! I’m not the President!”

“You are.” Grace spoke quietly. “Succession, per the Constitution of the U.S.”

Darius glared at both of them, looked behind them to the Secret Service agents standing at the locked doors, at the covered windows. He wanted his tree house, his lab, even the attic office he’d claimed as Vice-President. Not this, not now, not ever. Destiny was a fickle mistress.

“I’m a scientist, not a politician.” His growl didn’t change anything in the room. President? His stomach growled, which made Grace smile just a little. Darius turned away from everyone. He needed a few minutes. He was capable of visualizing computer code, quantum physics, outcome of experiments with only a few minutes of study. He could memorize anything he set his mind to, pull up volumes of data he’d studied while lying in bed with a brandy. But he’d never studied what it meant to be a leader within the reality of the White House. Leading projects, focusing scientists to produce results; this is what he did. The Ark, the rail gun, moving an asteroid from a disastrous trajectory, imaging the means to an end; all things he could do. Being President? From one breath to the next he squared his shoulders and decided. Truth, he didn’t have a choice. Fate had handed him a new and different challenge. He turned back to the small crowd in the room. Did he trust any of them? Not really. Grace and Harris had so many secrets that he was just now learning. Of course he had more secrets than any of them. His secrets were buried in the Ark, in Tess, in his tree house. All had to wait until the world was safe, until the country was secure. The world... the asteroid, had to be his first priority. Regardless of what the people in front of him thought he had to put the planet first. 

“First things first. There’s an asteroid out there we have to deal with. Grace, get Liam here. Regardless of his involvement with Re/Syst I need him and the scientists he’s working with. We’re running out of time. Harris, get the head of the FBI and put him in charge of finding out who killed MacKenzie. Make sure he’s not part of Bennett’s group. Personally make sure, Harris.”

“You have to be sworn in.” Grace’s ever practical statement broke the silence.

Darius nodded. “I know.” He looked around again. Everyone was looking at him. He really hated being the focus of attention unless he wanted it and planned it to his advantage. Once again he was at the mercy of someone else priority. “I’m sure you know how to get a judge and Bible in here. We need to document this, broadcast it, and let the world know what has happened.”

Grace nodded again and started to slip away. She stopped and looked back when Darius called her name. “Yes, Mr. President?”

“Take an agent with you. I don’t trust what is out there.” Darius randomly pointed to a towering man in a serious suit. “Make sure you don’t lose her.”

The agent nodded and opened the door, firearm in hand, safety off. The pair slipped out of the barely open door. Darius settled at a convenient table and finally saw his surroundings. Small conference room containing stacks of chairs and a dozen tables mostly gathered in the middle of the room. A tiny light in his brain pointed out the room was defensible and a second later it registered with him that he’d even thought of that. Harris was in the corner of the room, cell phone to his ear, speaking urgently. Darius dismissed him for a moment. Other things were nagging at him. He pulled out his own phone, punched in a couple numbers.

“Jillian, Darius. I’m tied up for a moment. I need a wi-fi capable video camera. Bring it to –“ he hesitated, looking around the room – “just a moment.” He locked eyes with the Secret Service agent who had escorted him to this location. He motioned him forward and glanced at the name tag. “Agent Adams, I need my assistant. Tell her where to come and escort her in.” He handed his phone over and nodded for the man to talk. He thought he could think better seated but now he was up, pacing again. The agents watched him, moving in front of the curtain draped windows whenever he got to close, herding him back into the center of the room. Darius stopped in front of Harris as the man slipped his phone into his jacket.

“Well?”

Harris glanced around the room finally speaking softly to his new president. “I think we should head back to the White House. It’s more defensible.”

“So this isn’t over? Pauline’s death wasn’t enough.” Darius raked his hands through his hair. “Motorcade in place?”

“Yes sir. FBI and Secret Service just went over it with dogs and mirrors. They have placed guards on it. Darius, Bennett is dead too. We don’t know how yet. He was in a secure cell.” Harris watched Darius’ reaction to the news he’d kept secret for several hours.

“Damn. We all have targets on our backs.”

“It would appear so. The President’s death hasn’t hit the airwaves yet, neither has Bennett’s. It’s only a matter of time. We need to get in front of this, control the narrative.”

Darius shot the man a fierce glare. “Isn’t this what you’ve been trying to do? Control the narrative? How’s that working for you?” He stalked away from Harris, came back. “Give me five minutes in the men’s room, then we’ll go.”

“I’ll have the Service sweep it. Just a moment.”

Darius’ mind was screaming a thousand miles a second by the time Harris reappeared with another agent at his side. “Agent Roberts will be your shadow for the time being.”

“Whatever.” Darius followed the agent into the large bathroom and ignored the man as he stepped into the furthest stall from the door. Returning to the large sink he turned on the water until it ran steaming hot as he pulled several paper towels from a dispenser and dropped them into the sink under the hot water. He glanced into the mirror and momentarily studied his guard before he looked into the mirror at himself. Darius groaned at the haggard and tired face that looked back at him. 

“How long have you been with the Secret Service, Agent Roberts?”

“Five years, Sir.” Roberts moved from a relaxed parade rest to hands clasped in front of him. 

“Before this?”

“Army, Sir. Infantry.”

Darius wiped the blood off his face as he studied the man in the mirror. He hadn’t been in the political arena long but he’d been in the public realm for years. Some people just set his radar on red alert and this guy was one of those. He was questioning everyone’s motives and intentions these days. It was a lesson he’d learned the hard way. Should he listen to instincts about the man in the mirror supposedly there to protect him? Darius glanced around the sterile bathroom. What did he have for weapons? Should he sound an alarm? Would the small protection of a bullet proof shirt be enough against whatever handgun the agent carried? He looked at the handful of soap currently in his palm. He hadn’t even realized he’d been collecting it.

The men’s room door swung open and Harris was framed in the light. “We gotta go. MacKenzie’s death just got leaked. And before you ask we don’t know who leaked it.”

“Great.” Darius turned off the water and tossed the balled up paper towel in the trash can as he pushed past Harris and into the hall. Thoughts about Roberts would have to wait. Harris led the way to the motorcade, weapon drawn and aimed down as he went. Darius was boxed in by agents as they went down stairwells and freight elevators, arriving at an armored limo surrounded by guards.

Harris didn’t hesitate in briefing Darius as the limo and the escort pulled out. “Grace called. She’s bringing a federal judge to the White House. I intercepted Jillian, sent her there as well. Liam called Grace. Told her he’d be in the tree house, whatever that means. Says he’s got some help with him. You would know who he’s talking about. Do you?”

Darius looked through the dark window as the streets rushed by. “Probably.” His brain spun onto the asteroid problem. He had an idea what and who Liam was talking about. His young protégé was almost predictable. He really didn’t have time to be the new President of the United States. Couldn’t he just ignore that title until the asteroid was dealt with, as well as the nukes hovering in space aimed at the planet?

He glanced back to Harris. How had this man become a confidant of some type? He didn’t know him, didn’t trust him. Looking back on the last few months he didn’t trust Grace either. They’d been thrown into this quagmire and had turned to each other to stay afloat. Every moment generated another problem that had to be dealt with immediately, not after serious thought and reflection. Grace thought on her feet, reacted to crisis’s and didn’t let her emotions float to the surface while making decisions. 

“How long will this take?” Darius waited for the door to his limo to open and his security squad to form up.

“The actual oath of office takes only a few minutes. Then you need to address the nation to assure everyone the government is still intact.” Harris got out of the car and looked over the top of the limo at Darius’ frowning face. “Half hour, maybe.”

“Then I’m going to my lab. This isn’t negotiable, Harris!” Darius almost led the Secret Service into the White House. If he was going to be President he was doing it his way and to hell with protocols!


End file.
